What Happened at Abu Ghraib?

Abu Ghraib is known for the prison abuse scandal in 2003. During this scandal, guards were ordered to perform some of the most horrific acts of violence to the detainees. The guards became numb to the abuse they were inflicting, so this became a normal routine. Many prisoners were forced to hang from chains or listen to loud noises for hours at a time so they could not sleep. According to one detainee, it was "hunger, abuse, and harassment."

In the fall of 2003, a prison riot broke out. The guards became so infuriated with the rioters, that they became more abusive. Most inmates were ordered to strip naked. Some were forced to walk around naked or crawl through the hallway. There were instances of detainees stripping naked then forced to form a pyramid on the floor, or to get on top of another detainee and masturbate. Prisoners were forced into more stress positions, usually naked, and were left there to be laughed at by the guards.

During the interrogations, men, and women, were subject to more abuse, including beatings. One prisoner explains his father's death, saying that he came back from an interrogation badly bruised and had a fever. He began to foam at the mouth, then died. There were many other accounts of people dying from being beaten in interrogations, but the U.S. Army has never made public the number of deaths at Abu Ghraib. Only one of the deaths at this prison was ruled a homicide. That was the death of a man named al-Jamadi, who was only ruled a homicide because pictures were taken of his body after death. The murderers were never charged with the crime.